Don’t doctors hate trial lawyers ? Not in Doug Landau’s case

July 26, 2008

Doug Landau

I hope not. And they certainly do not in my case. After all, I have represented a number of doctors, therapists and nurses in my career and they still call on me for assistance and legal advice. They also refer their own patients and family members to our office for help.

I have served as counsel for Virginia Physicians Managed Care, Inc., which was comprised of many of the top OB/GYNs in Northern Virginia, and have taught “Orthopedics for Lawyers” with top spine surgeon Tom Schuler of the Virginia Spine Institute. My record representing physicians speaks for itself, and my medical training has helped me to understand and work with those in the health professions. Here is my wife with my long time friend Dr. Susan Rheingold at a recent trial lawyers gathering. She is a doctor and she seems to put up with us just fine. Yes, there are doctors who do not respect lawyers, just as there are lawyers who do not respect doctors. I am not one of those people. I try to abide by the following when working with Health Care Providers:

1. Respond to questions promptly,

2. Keep the patient (and client) “in the loop,

3. Try to ensure that the doctor has all of the relevant medical recrods,

4. Provide the treating specialist with prior medical records from the family doctor,

5. Demand complete candor from the client and their family with regard to health and medical histories,

6. Make it easy for busy physicians to respond to important questions by the use of SHORT letters, straightforward inquiries and forms, where appropriate,

7. Accomodate busy surgeons’ schedules and give as much advance notice as to the need for testimony at trial as possible,

8. Invest in professionally done medical illustrations, enlargements of pictures and positives of x-rays so that the doctor’s testimony is more easily understood by the jury, judge, mediator and/or arbitrator.